Thursday, August 16, 2007

How Do You Feel About...

On my other blog, for the current band I'm highlighting, Mr. Speed (a KISS tribute band), regular visitors Flannery Alden and Jess have politely abstained from voting.

They have been really supportive of my writing both here and on my new blog, for which I am eternally thankful. They have also both had some marvelous insights regarding band dynamics.

There are countless possible reasons why they chose to abstain, but I inferred my own reasons, and now I have a strange little thought rattling around in my head. Was the vote declined due to an underlying hostility to KISS?

Then it got me thinking. How do people in general feel about KISS? They were absolutely huge back when I was a kid. They have made a reasonably large splash in the pop culture pool.

I know how I feel about them, but I want to know how you feel about them.

When Gene Simmons went on Terry Gross' Fresh Air and picked on her for not being sexual enough to want to have sex with him I thought he might just be the biggest ass on the planet.

Then when he tried to copy the Osbournes with his stupid show he only showed for real he's the biggest ass on the planet.

I caught a bit of his reality show one night when it showed him having a skiing accident (Ozzy has ATV accident - Gene follows with compelling ski accident footage) The funny part was the cameraman left Gene alone on the side of the trail with his camera running for over an hour. Some guy skiing down the run found Gene and stayed with him until help arrived. When he found out who the skier was he pooped himself with joy.

'yer feckin' Gene Simmons from feckin' Kiss'! the guy kept saying. Like he was the luckiest man in the world to find an aging Kiss member trapped in the woods.

In a recent post on a comics-oriented blog I regularly read, the blog's author started a hoax about an erotic manga featuring the members of KISS. I'll repeat what I said in my comment on the post -- "Every time Gene Simmons gets enraged, an angel gets its wings."

kristi, they definitely have a put a thought or two into their overall visual look, whether it's the lettering of their name, or Peter Kriss as "The Cat".

barbara, haven't seen that. Was KISS doing their own voices?

beckeye, in all sincerity, one of my favorite rock songs is "Rock And Roll All Nite". As far as the ugly-off, if you have seen KISS without makeup, Ace Frehley uglies out everyone else.

dc, I actually saw KISS play in Rockford, IL a couple years ago. Though "Beth" was biggest hit, none of the band played. It was just Peter Kriss singing along with a pre-recorded tape. I think they might have the same feelings about the song that you do.

I hate KISS, always have. When I was a kid, I thought they were too scary. When I was a teenager, they had forsaken the make-up for Menudo gear and suddenly became irrelevent, though, ironically, I think Lick It Up was their best song. Then they they put the make-up back on and oy! I just wanted them to go away and I tried to ignore them.

I guess I actually started loathing them in earnest when Gene Simmons revealed that his true nature by pimping his Kiss Coffin on the Howard Stern show. This man is not in it for the music; it's all about money for him. It'd be one thing if his music was good, but it's not. It's vapid and shallow.